


Sweet Creature

by daisy_chain_gardens



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Future Fic, Minor Character Death, Self Harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-30 19:42:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12115872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daisy_chain_gardens/pseuds/daisy_chain_gardens
Summary: Wherever I go, you bring me homeAn angsty one shot based off the Harry Styles song 'Sweet Creature'





	Sweet Creature

**Author's Note:**

> I apologise in advance because this is kind of angsty. This is also my first time writing something like this so please let me know what you think.

He’d passed the Riverdale sign hours ago, the town no longer shrinking in his rearview mirror. Jughead had thought that leaving would be a tremendous event, an act of independence and finality, but his victory was bittersweet and left a sour taste in his mouth. He reached over and turned on the tape, hoping the noise would help distract him from the darkness of his thoughts. Of course, he had no such luck.

The stereo in the old truck hadn’t worked for as long as Jughead could remember, leaving only the tape deck. Betty had always loved making tapes full of songs for every occasion; road trips, birthdays, bad days, just because. They’d been driving around last summer listening to one of her tapes when the car had finally given up, trapping the plastic rectangle within itself and refusing to let it go. Jughead could probably recite all of the songs on that tape. They’d listened to it so many times, their only option to drown out the deafening silence which had a tendency to fall between the couple in the recent months.

_Sweet creature_  
_Had another talk about where it's going wrong_

"Betts, I'm not doing this again. There's nothing here for me anymore; no family, no friends, a job that doesn’t even require me to be in this godforsaken town. I have nothing here except you. But I can't keep having this same fight. Can't you see what it's doing to us? Doing to you? I’ve hardly seen you smile since the summer and I know you’re miserable, even if you hate to admit it. How can you not at least consider this?" Jughead's voice was strong and broken, cold and loving. Betty could hear the pain behind his every word but she wasn't giving in, just like she hadn't given in any other time they’d had this same conversation over the last few months. 

He knew how she felt about this.

"Am I not enough for you?" She sounded quiet and unsure, the complete opposite of how she's felt only moments before. She could feel her nails curling into her palms. If she pressed just that little bit harder they'd reach their goal, allow the scarlet drops to pour from her palms and drop onto the too white carpet which still looked new despite them living on it for the last four years. 

"God, Betts, how could you even think that? You are my everything and I love you so much but I can't keep doing this. I need a change and I need ... I need to get out of here. I feel like this town is pulling me under and you're the only one who can stop me from drowning but that's not fair on you. We need a fresh start somewhere new because I can't even imagine what’s going to happen to us if we don’t." He stepped towards her and reached for her hands, prying them open like he had so many times over the last ten years. He felt Betty relax beneath his touch, waiting for her to take a deep breath and praying to whatever god was listening that when she opened her eyes they wouldn't be filled with tears. None of the gods were listening that night. 

"We’re both too stubborn to change our minds." Her eyes finally overflowed and a flood of tears spilled down her face, taking her carefully applied make up with it. "We’re both so stubborn, Jug, and it's killing us." She was looking straight at him, ignoring the mess of her face and slipping her hands from his, letting go of his final hope at redemption. His eyes stung with the threat of tears but he refused to give in, refused to finally admit that it was over. 

_We don't know where we're going_  
_But we know where we belong_

Jughead looked across at the empty passenger seat and could almost see her sitting there, her arm stretched out the open window as her golden hair whipped around her face, as if the wind wanted to make her one of it’s own. When she wasn’t singing her laughter would mask the sound flowing from the truck, becoming the only music in Jughead's ears. He remembered when she’d first made that damned tape. She’d been so excited for him to hear it that she’d bounced over to the truck and jammed the tape in before either of them could say a word. As soon as the music started to drift out of the tinny speakers she’d leant over and kissed his cheek.

“I know you said that we already have too many tapes at home but we can’t have a proper road trip without a proper road trip tracklist so I just had to make one and here it is.” She was practically bubbling and her excitement was contagious, Jughead smiling softly at the sight of her looking so carefree. 

It had been months since he’d seen her like this. Everything had been slowly piling up and he could tell she was almost at her breaking point. The Register, Polly, the twins, her mother, Kevin moving, and an infinite amount of other small things that had a tendency to get under her skin and stay there tauntingly, whispering their snide remarks until she finally released them with her nails and let them fall to the ground in thick scarlet drops. 

He’d helped her clean up her palms a countless number of times, mumbled words of encouragement and support in her ear to lull her to sleep, held her as she broke down in his arms. Jughead wouldn’t change it for the world, because despite all the darkness there was still that glimmer of hope hiding in there, that something that was purely Betty and whenever she came to the surface it was almost as if the darkness had never really existed. It was moments like these that made up for all of the pain and suffering they’d been through, and he wouldn’t change it for the world.

_No, we started_  
_Two hearts in one home_

Ten years and it had come to this; both of them standing in the middle of their sparse apartment, the gap between them so small but the words that filled it were larger than anything they could cross. Betty wasn't coming with him and he wasn't staying so that was that, there was nothing left to say or do except leave. 

Jughead tore his gaze away from Betty's piercing green eyes and walked into their bedroom, grabbing a backpack and shoving things in at random. Betty hadn't moved an inch when he returned to the living room, staring straight ahead as though he was still there. He walked over and stood in front of her once more, reaching for her hand just so he could feel her touch one last time. She didn't respond and continued to look right through him. To her he was already gone. 

Jughead lifted her limp hand up to his lips, willing her to say something or give him any indication this was the wrong decision. He knew that this was the best decision for both of them but she only had to open her mouth and he'd change his mind, stay in the town he hated just so he could be with the woman who’d stolen his heart all those years ago. He guided her hand back down to her side and then walked out the door, unable to look back as he got into his truck and started the engine. 

_It's hard when we argue_  
_We're both stubborn_  
_I know_

They’d driven for hours and hours, no destination in mind as the truck rolled along the winding roads, leading them further and further from the only place they’d ever been able to call home. Jughead had been so happy when she’d agreed to go away with him, hoping that a change of scenery would help convince her to leave that suffocating place which ran on secrets and lies. It had almost worked. Their whole trip had felt like a dream, both of them happier than they’d been in a long time as their troubles melted away under the warm sun and disappeared on the constant whisper of a breeze which seemed to follow them around. 

He distinctly remembered the moment everything had changed. Betty had gotten a phone call as they were driving along a long empty stretch of road, the wheat fields on either side of them seemed to hide them from whatever dangers might try and pounce on them. All dangers but one. 

Betty’s phone had started ringing; Alice again, calling to check up on them despite them both having lived together since they’d graduated from high school. Betty put her phone on speaker o Alice could undergo her usual interrogation. This wasn’t a check up call. 

“Elizabeth I’m … I’m so sorry.” Alice’s broken sobs filled the car and Jughead stopped in the middle of the road, noticing the way Betty’s face dropped and turned a ghostly white.

“Mum, Mum what’s going on?” Betty’s voice cracked in the middle of her sentence, turning to look at Jughead and letting him see all of the fear inside her gorgeous green eyes. “Mum, tell me what’s going on.” 

“It’s your father.” With those three words everything fell apart. 

_Sweet creature, sweet creature_  
_Wherever I go, you bring me home_

As soon as he turned off their street he pulled out his phone and called Archie. There was no one left for him to turn to now that he’d let go of the one person he knew he could rely on unconditionally. His brother would have to do. 

“Hey Jug, how’s it going?” Archie was always upbeat and Jughead honestly had no idea how he did it. Somehow he managed to make to make things seem not quite so bad and if anyone needed that at the moment, it was Jughead.

“Hey Arch, it’s not going too great to be honest. Any chance I could come and crash with you for a few days?” Jughead’s voice sounded small as he once again tried to stop his tears from spilling down his cheeks. He focused on the road and Archie’s cheerful tone, wondering he could be so happy when Jughead felt so … empty. 

There was no other way to describe it. He felt empty and numb and so so tired, but he couldn’t stop. He knew that if he stopped he’d turn right back around and run straight back to her, but he couldn’t stop. She’d said it herself, they were killing each other. As much as it ached he knew he couldn’t kill her anymore than he already had, leave her hollower than the shell of a human being she had slowly become. 

“Thanks Arch, I … it means a lot to me. I’ll see you in a couple of days, ok?” The line went dead moments later and plunged the truck into silence. The darkness of night outside the windows was nothing compared to the black pit of darkness that was forming inside his mind.

_Sweet creature, sweet creature_  
_When I run out of rope, you bring me home_

Something had broken inside her that day. It was like the last piece of string that was holding her together had finally snapped and left her to fall apart into a million pieces. The sob that escaped her lips was heart wrenching and she had collapsed into Jughead’s arms, her tears staining his shirt as his fell silently into her hair. 

They stayed like that until the sun had fallen and risen again, somehow managing to produce enough tears to last them the night. Once Jughead’s hands had stopped shaking enough that he could hold the wheel he quietly restarted the car, both of them knowing that their trip was over. Betty stayed huddled into his side, his arm only ever moving from around her shoulders to occasionally indicate as they slowly made their way back to Riverdale. Neither of them wanted to face the demons that were waiting for them there but they knew they had no choice. 

Something had broken inside her that day, and it had taken all of her light with it.

_Sweet creature_  
_We're running through the garden_  
_Where nothing bothered us_

The tape stopped when the sun started to rise beyond the tree line. It just … stopped, and so did Jughead, his grief finally overwhelming him. He pulled over to the side of the road seconds before he finally broke too, a flood of tears spilling down his face and dripping onto his dark jeans. 

By the time he pulled himself together again, the sun was high overhead and all Jughead really wanted to do was fall asleep in their bed, his arms wrapped around her waist as she tucked her chin into his chest. He took a deep breath and tried to steady his breathing, praying that he had some small amount of control left that would allow him to drive without a drastic ending. 

He pulled back onto the road, driving straight for a few seconds before changing his mind and turning around, back to the girl of his dreams and the town of his nightmares.

_Sweet creature, sweet creature_  
_Wherever I go, you bring me home_

The trip seemed to take ten times longer than it did the night before and he had to stop once or twice to calm his breathing and try to prevent himself from breaking down once more. He was about an hour from home when a familiar car drove past him in the opposite direction, his favourite blonde sitting behind the wheel. He quickly turned around and drove behind her, pressing on the horn to get her attention. A few minutes later she pulled over and jumped out of the car, rushing towards Jughead. 

“Jug I’m so sorry. I love you so much and I don’t know what I was thinking. There’s no way I ca-” Jughead’s lips crashed onto hers, interrupting her ramblings and stealing her breath away all in one motion. His hands reached up to cup her face and pull her closer to him, wanting more of her than was humanly possible.

“I love you Betty. I love you so much more than you’ll ever know and I don’t know what sort of idiot I was to think that I could ever survive without you. I meant what I said last night. You’re my whole world and I have no idea how on earth I thought otherwise. Please forgive me Betts, I’ll do anything. I’ll even live in Riverdale for the rest of my days just so I could be with you.” Betty could hear the desperation dripping from every word. Jughead’s thumb was wiping tears off her cheeks as fast as they could fall, the action in itself so comforting that she could feel herself melting into his touch.

“I wouldn’t ask that of you Juggie, you know that. We need to start over somewhere new. I’ve been thinking about it all night and you’re right. I’m letting myself fall deeper and deeper and I’m dragging you with me.” Betty wrapped her arms around his torso and rested her head on his chest, causing Jughead to smile and dropped a kiss to her hair.

“Where to?” He asked quietly.

“Wherever the road takes us.”

_Sweet creature, sweet creature_  
_When I run out of rope, you bring me home_

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave kudos and a comment to let me know what you think :)


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